Wicklow side no longer expects just an 'annual outing'

The Gerry Buckley Column -- As happened nationwide last Sunday, a minute's silence was observed in Portlaoise prior to the Wicklow v. Carlow, Leinster senior football championship opener, in memory of the thousands who lost their lives in the Great Famine almost 200 years ago. May God forgive me, but I giggled a little prior to the National Anthem as I recalled the late, great Dermot Morgan's 'Scrap Saturday' radio sketch where he had a starving Eamon Dunphy calling that most awful of tragedies "a good famine, not a great famine"!However, it was an appropriate tribute, given that the participants have experienced a football famine in the province in the 126-year history of the GAA, with just one title between them. Indeed, that win for Carlow came 66 years ago and is unlikely to remembered by too many of the small Barrowside following in the resplendent O'Moore Park last Sunday afternoon. The winners were drawn to meet another success-starved county for a slot in the semi-final of the Delaney Cup. A county called Westmeath, whose inaugural win in 2004 was succinctly labelled as "the end of a famine" by that most affable of men, and maroon and white to the core, our County Board chairman at the time, Séamus Ó Faoláin. Of course, like them or loathe them (and most Gaels are by now somewhere in the middle of those groupings), the advent of the Qualifiers in 2001 have ended what I recall oh so painfully and tearfully as "the annual outing" for Lake County fans over many a long day ie. our far-more-often-than-not exit in the first round in the Leinster Championship, regardless of our opponents. Thankfully, the Luke/Páidí/Tomás eras put paid to that mentality, even if last year still evokes nightmares of what would have been a rare second outing when we were absolutely massacred by Dublin.I have football friends/acquaintances in many counties and I got congratulatory texts from 16 counties within two hours of the final whistle on July 24, 2004 in Croke Park, including Wicklow and Carlow. Both of the latter pals also grew up in an 'annual outing' syndrome, with the Carlow guy similarly frustrated by the ongoing inability of his beloved team in red, green and yellow to defeat Meath (and Louth, remarkably) in championship football. However, his father could console him somewhat with memories of the great side of 1944.The Wicklow friend had no such crumbs of comfort, no matter how many generations he consulted. For my part, my father invariably drove home from Navan/Tullamore/Portlaoise and many other 'graveyards of Westmeath football' with his final words as he threw the car keys on the kitchen table: "Never again." He invariably followed up with a comment to my mother: "And tell that mad little eejit (aka yours truly) not to ask me to go and look at that shower this time next year." Boy, did I enjoy bringing the Delaney Cup to Ballyglass Cemetery in early 2005 and plonking it on his side of the grave, before shouting so loud that I expected him and others to emerge from the ground with the fright: "Never again, my a**e," before winking at my mother's side of the grave and having one hell of a cry. Since the messiah that is Mick O'Dwyer arrived in the Garden County four years ago, the expectation levels there have increased dramatically. And rightly so, because Micko has always delivered; it's as simple as that. For the "f***ing animal supporters" in his native Kerry (as one of his protégés famously remarked!), and more hopeful than expectant fans in Kildare and Laois. Last year's 'back door' odyssey has probably put unrealistic targets in the hearts and minds of blue and gold-clad fans, who greatly outnumbered their counterparts last Sunday. It would be a brave man who would put good, bad or NAMA money on Wicklow's Leighton Glynn holding aloft the Delaney Cup on July 11th, leaving Fermanagh alone (assuming they don't win the Anglo Celt Cup a week later, as they should have two years ago) as the only county without a senior provincial title. However, based on what I saw last Sunday, Wicklow are entitled to be considered favourites to qualify for a rare semi-final slot when they face Pat Flanagan's charges on June 6th.I had a lot of time for Brendan Hackett as a person and could empathise with his long-term plan for Westmeath football, but what I hope were reasonable criticisms of where it went wrong for him were articulated in this column four weeks ago. Frankly, as I left Semple Stadium after our 14th successive league defeat (and seventh under Brendan) on April 11, I turned to a colleague and said, very sombrely let me add: "The winners of Wicklow and Carlow will beat us by eight or nine points in the Leinster quarter-final." That view has changed with the freshening up of the management structure and the strengthening of the panel, but if Micko got a lift to Mullingar with me from Portlaoise last Sunday evening to spy on an absolutely dire game between two of our top clubs, Mullingar Shamrocks and Tyrrellspass, the Wicklow bainisteoir would have rang his team coordinator to book a hotel in Dublin for June 26 for a penultimate round clash with (more than likely) Kildare.Luke Dempsey's contribution to Westmeath football should never, ever be forgotten (and certainly won't be by this most grateful columnist) and last Sunday morning a "good luck today, Luke" text was promptly acknowledged with a "thank you, Gerry, hopefully" reply. But Luke had very little luck on the day, despite the Trojan display for long periods by his suitably-lauded midfield colossus, Brendan Murphy (his centrefield partner, Thomas Walsh, who ironically donned the Wicklow colours last year and was surprisingly spared the boos and jeers I feared from the Wicklow folk in the 5,225 crowd, did not look match-fit to me). Fine goalkeeping by Mervyn Travers and a rebound struck against the post effectively ended a wasteful Carlow challenge with a quarter-of-an-hour remaining and my betting slip with a tenner on Carlow at 3/1 was crumbled up shortly afterwards.Wicklow will take a lot of beating in two-and-a-half weeks. They have a fine netminder, a solid defence, a useful midfield and a strong attacking sextet. And a truly great manager. And fans who expect lots of championship outings nowadays!by Gerry Buckley